This invention relates to vehicle windows and, more particularly, to prefabricated vehicle windows having exterior moldings. The moldings cover the junction between the marginal edges of the glass sheet and the adjacent portions of the vehicle body and provide the vehicle with a pleasant appearance.
Processes for manufacturing prefabricated windows having exterior moldings are well known in the art. One such process is disclosed in Japanese Patent application laid-open publication No. 58-113,480, wherein the peripheral edge of a window glass is placed in the cavity of an injection mold, and the exterior molding is formed by injecting a hardenable polymeric material into the mold cavity. In this process, the window glass tends to be subjected to damage due to the high injection pressure of the polymeric material.
Other known processes for manufacturing prefabricated windows having exterior moldings, such as, for example, the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,278 to Saint-Gobain Vitrage, Courbevoie, France, involve the use of machines to deposit a hardenable polymeric material along the periphery of the window glass. These machines do not allow the vehicle manufacturer the flexibility to make any changes to the sizes, colors, shapes, and other styling features of the moldings without installing additional machines to make the desired changes. In addition, these machines use fine-slotted extrusion nozzles which are not adapted to compensate for the uneven thickness of the window glass. Typically, the nozzle is placed at a fixed position from the glass, and as close to the glass as possible, as the polymeric material tends to lose its compactness of form shortly after emerging from the nozzle. The nozzle is typically programmed to straddle the inner and outer glass surfaces to deposit the hardenable polymeric material on the periphery of the window glass. If the nozzle is made of metal, glass breakage can occur when the nozzle comes in contact with the glass with sufficient force. Such glass breakage can be avoided by using a plastic nozzle. However, using a plastic nozzle has a disadvantage, in that a plastic nozzle would wear out and become distorted easily and would produce a distorted bead of hardenable polymeric material.
It would be desirable to provide a simple process for preparing a vehicle window having an exterior molding which is flexible to accommodate any molding shape and/or style desired by the vehicle manufacturer.